Corporate conservatives are accusing Sanders of "buying votes" by "promising" "free stuff." Is it true? The people who consider the things We the People "get" from government just "free stuff" misunderstand the purpose of government.

People are questioning Hillary Clinton over millions in speaking fees and contributions from Wall Street. There are specific steps she can take now, and pledges she can make about what she will do if elected. Will she?

Bernie Sanders strongly voiced his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday and committed to doing what he can to kill the deal if he is elected president. Will Hillary Clinton commit to doing the same?

Ford Motor said this week that it will close operations in Japan and Indonesia because it sees "no reasonable path to profitability." Last year GM pulled out of Indonesia. This is in spite of the coming Trans-Pacific Partnership.

We the People of the United States, through our elected representatives in Congress, allow this. Or, to put it in today's reality: Billionaires and their corporations pay handsomely for a Congress that allows this.

It's been out of the news, but there's always the risk that Wall Street will find a way to force the Trans-Pacific Partnership back to the fore. Contact Congress and ask your representative to come out publicly against the TPP.

Will the President provide a positive, progressive message for the future in his last State of the Union address, or will he continue to push the wildly unpopular, corporate/Wall Street-written Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

Two recent cases demonstrate the danger to democratic government from investor-state dispute provisions in trade agreements. It appears it is President Obama who was “absolutely wrong” about the dangers of TPP.

The Supreme Court has again decided to reconsider "settled law." The goal is to bankrupt public employee unions by denying them funding for services they are legally bound to provide to every worker – including nonmembers.

"Under my administration, Wall Street CEOs will no longer receive a get-out-of jail free card," Sanders says just blocks from Wall Street. "Big banks will not be too big to fail. Big bankers will not be too big to jail."

Republicans put a surprise sneak-law into the big, last-minute “Omnibus” budget bill: it bans the administration from making companies and “charities” disclose who is putting up the bribe money money for political campaigns.

With a Republican Congress, every budget battle is about ratcheting down the things our government does to make our lives better. This year was no exception. But We the People got some things out of the bargaining.

In August, Netflix announced a great, new parental leave policy. But it only covered already-well-off employees. Progressives launched a campaign and now Netflix is giving family leave to other employees, too.

Do not be misled about reports that a Trans-Pacific Partnership vote is being delayed. It's a bargaining ploy. Republicans want “side agreements” that give corporations even more. We have to keep up the fight.

This week, dozens of federal food service contract workers staged a sit-in at Sen. Ted Cruz's office, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren showed up at the Senate cafeteria to tell the workers to “KEEP FIGHTING!”

A new study measured job losses from Walmart’s offshoring at 400,000. That doesn’t measure the cost of low-wage employees on public assistance, or budget cuts forced on us by the resulting billionaires.

About Dave Johnson

Dave has more than 20 years of technology industry experience. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. He was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.